


the course of true love never did run smooth

by stellatoo



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Romance, Slow Burn, Teen Angst, mention of bullying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29576466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellatoo/pseuds/stellatoo
Summary: Kai held up a hand to silence him, head turned toward Ryujin as he repeated, “How much?”“Okay, so the thing is, we’re not getting paid in money, per se. It’s for this year’s musical—”Soobin turned to glance at Beomgyu and the rest of his trio. A dozen or so scenarios began swimming through his mind at the mention of the school musical.Kai deflated at her words and muttered, “We’re out,” at the same time as Soobin slapped the cafeteria table excitedly and turned back toward Ryujin to proclaim, “We’re in!”“Who’s the sell out now,” Kai muttered, a look of open disgust on his face.✥Or: the one where Soobin and Kai get roped into stage crew duties, the latter for the free pizza and the former for the opportunity to get closer to the self proclaimed "love of his life". Needless to say, they get more than they bargained.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Choi Soobin, Choi Soobin/???
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	the course of true love never did run smooth

“And even for that do I love you the more.  
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,  
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:  
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,  
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,”

Soobin watched, enthralled as Beomgyu stepped forward, script held low. 

His hair looked so shiny and silky under the bright stage lights and his cheeks had garnered a pretty pink flush from the intensity and heat of them. He moved in confident strides as he recited his monologue with practiced ease and Soobin couldn’t help but stare. 

Beomgyu had originally auditioned for the role of Lysander, but Mr. Park had felt that (and justified it with Twelfth Night being so “tragically over done”) it felt more fitting to cast Beomgyu as Helena, renamed Helenus, and the role of Lysander, renamed Lysandra, was given instead to Hwang Yeji.

“Unworthy as I am, to follow you.  
What worser place can I beg in your love,--  
And yet a place of high respect with me,--  
Than to be used as you use your dog?”

Beomgyu finished his monologue with a pained look on his eyes as he stared longingly at Hyunjin. The latter startled out of his relaxed position against one of the prop pillars when Mr. Park cleared his throat and quickly raised his script. 

“Uh, sorry, um, what page are we on again?”

Soobin didn’t know much about Shakespeare or plays in general, but he was almost certain that wasn’t meant to be Demetrius’ next line.

He’s lucky he’s pretty, Soobin thought bitterly as Hyunjin stumbled awkwardly through his lines. If the auditions were based on merit and merit alone, there’s no doubt that Hyunjin would have been one of the first try-outs to be tossed aside. But actual talent is but a minor requirements for a high school play, especially when the casting directors were a twenty something English teacher and two seniors. 

“You do im…peach? your modesty too much,  
To leave the city and commit yourself  
Into the hands of one that loves you not;  
To trust the opportunity of night  
And the i’ll, or sorry, ill counsel of a desert place  
With the rich worth of your… vir—ginity.”

Hyunjin had to hide a giggle at the last word, quickly sobering at the identical glares Beomgyu and Mr. Park shot him, but then bursting in a full bellied laugh when Jeongin and Felix began snickering from where they sat watching cross-legged at the edge of the stage.

Next to Soobin, Kai let out an exasperated huff and glared at Soobin, “How exactly did we end up wasting our Saturday night here again?”

⋆  
(earlier that week)

Soobin had only been half paying attention to the story that Kai was animatedly relaying to him. 

Something about the bizarre shift he’d had at the convenience store last night. He’d mentioned a rabid frog? Or perhaps he’d said wild dog. 

It was 11:10 am on a Monday and some time ago, perhaps a little over half an hour earlier, Soobin had secluded himself in a relatively quiet corner of the cafeteria, calculus textbook in hand, with the goal of finally getting derivatives down. Somewhere within that half hour, Kai had wandered over to their lunch table with a half eaten slice of slimy cafeteria pizza in his hands in lieu of a textbook.

Kai’s enthusiastic story-telling was quite the distraction so any hope for studying had been tossed out the window the minute he’d gotten cozy. But really, Kai didn’t deserve all the blame. Had he not arrived when he did, chances were high that a certain someone would’ve still stolen Soobin’s attention from his schoolwork regardless. 

That certain someone being the head of freshly dyed blonde hair that was currently unraveling a large banner that had the audition dates for this years musical on it. 

Effortlessly gorgeous, unfathomably kind, the school’s golden boy, Choi Beomgyu, stood near the front of the cafeteria.

The table Soobin had chosen was in the far right corner, so, unfortunately, Beomgyu was much too far for Soobin to really be able to appreciate him in all his beauty. But even so, when the junior raised his arms, attempting to center the banner with Hwang Yeji’s help as Choi Jisu shouted out directions, Soobin couldn’t help but stare at the sliver of skin the movement exposed.

“Dude, you’re drooling,” Kai’s tone was a mix of disgust and annoyance. 

Soobin snapped out of his trance, glancing back at the younger and wiping self-consciously at the spot under his chin. 

Kai, who had finally taken notice that Soobin had clocked out of their conversation, looked behind himself in the direction of where Soobin’s gaze had been transfixed. His expression changed into one of understanding when he spotted Beomgyu pinning his corner of the banner to the large strip of cork that lined the cafeteria walls. 

Soobin scratched awkwardly at his scalp and flipped through his textbook, feigning studying, while Kai let out an exasperated groan. 

“Dude, you're seriously still creepily pining over Beomgyu? If you like him so much, why don’t you just, I dunno, ask him out?”

Letting his heavy textbook fall shut, Soobin glared in Kai’s direction, “One does not simply ‘ask Beomgyu out’.”

Not Beomgyu. Beautiful, well-loved, charismatic, Choi Beomgyu was a prince in every story. He was someone you regarded with the utmost respect but always at a healthy distance. He wasn’t someone that you could just approach freely and “ask out”. How foolish of Kai to even suggest something like that.

“And why not? He’s hot, you’re not that bad looking, he’s single right now and obviously you’re not dating anyone, who says you guys can’t fuck?”

Soobin mouth twisted and he physically cringed at Kai’s vulgarity.

“You know what? Never mind. Let’s change the subject, I am not discussing this any further with you.”

Kai shrugged in response and, foolishly, Soobin assumed it meant the end of the conversation. 

Not more than a beat of silence had the privilege of existing before Kai was opening his mouth again, “You know, I still don’t understand how anyone could possibly ever have a thing for a theater kid; that’s like the lamest extracurricular. If you’re gonna crush on anyone, you should at least be looking at an athlete. Specifically, someones from like the basketball team.”

Soobin let out a defeated sigh, “Kai, you’re on the basketball team.”

“Exactly,” Kai grinned. 

Not a beat later he was quickly shaking his head.

“But don’t go catching feelings for me. I don’t need any of,” he motioned in the vague direction of Soobin, “that in my life.” 

Soobin smiled phonily in response, “First off, you’re always on the bench, you’re hardly an actual basketball player, and second off, no one, like literally no one, would ever have a crush on you.”

“What a rude and unnecessary comment. And also false. Plenty of people have crushes on me.”

“Oh yeah? Then name one.”

“Taehyun?”

Soobin looked up at the name, “Taehyun, as in my younger brother? Likes you?!”

The concept was extremely laughable. 

Kang Taehyun did not do crushes (well that's excluding that one time he developed a weirdly professional crush on Val Valentino), but even if he did, Soobin was sure he’d raised him better than to ever have him fall for someone like Huening Kai. 

Kai’s face went pale and his voice lilted, scandalized at Soobin’s words, “What?!? No! I meant—”

“Who likes Kai?”

Soobin looked behind his shoulder as his younger brother approached the table they were sitting at. The junior had a half eaten sandwich in his right hand and Soobin’s water bottle in his left. His jacket was crumpled under the strap of the book bag that he still refused to wear properly, the other strap hanging loose behind him. He stopped when he reached the end of their table and tossed the water bottle to Soobin wordlessly. 

Soobin had forgotten that he’d forgotten that in the car.

“Thanks. Well, apparently, yo—” Soobin was about to respond to Taehyun’s earlier question when a forceful kick to the shin cut him off, “Ow!”

“No one,” Kai finished for him, through clenched teeth “Soobin was so kindly reminding me that no one likes me.”

Taehyun glanced between the two of them suspiciously as they exchanged glares and unspoken threats but ultimately chose to drop the subject, “Whatever, I was just dropping that off, I need to get going. I’ve gotta round up the supplies for todays Magician & Illusionist Society club meeting. We’re gonna attempt the Water Torture Cell Escape! I just gotta to figure out a way to get 500 gallons of water into the ceramics room.”

Soobin glanced skeptically at Taehyun, “And Mr. Kim is okay with you guys doing whatever that means?”

Taehyun nodded enthusiastically. 

“Oh yeah! He loves Houdini! He’s Mr. Kim’s favorite magician,” the junior leaned in close to shield his mouth as if someone might overhear, “Although I think that might just be 'cause it’s the only magician he knows, but either way, he’s actually really excited for it. I mean, he doesn’t know the exact Houdini trick we’re planning to do, but I'm sure he won’t mind.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he won’t.” Soobin muttered, sharing a glance with Kai. 

“Anyways, I’ll see you guys later! Bye Soobin! Bye Kai!”

Kai, who was still avoiding eye contact with Taehyun, nodded curtly while Soobin waved after his younger brother.

“Dude, why are you being so awkward.”

“I’m not being awkward.”

“He didn’t even hear me.”

“Shut up.”

“Hey guys!” The two looked up once more as Ryujin slid into the spot on the bench next to Kai, “So, we got a new commission and—”

“Not interested.” The two muttered in unison. 

Ryujin was the head of the school’s AV club and just because Kai and Soobin were both jobless and easy to approach, she seemed to think that it was perfectly fair game to ambush and rope them into whatever project had been dumped on her.

“But you guys didn’t even hear me!” She whined, “I said commission as in we’re getting compensated for this one!”

Kai immediately perked up at that. He was notoriously broke; heavily addicted to pay-to-win phone games that he was no good at in the first place, “How much?”

Soobin rolled his eyes, “You’re such a sell out.”

Kai held up a hand to silence him, head turned toward Ryujin as he repeated, “How much?”

“Okay, so the thing is, we’re not getting paid in money, per se. It’s for this year’s musical—”

At the mention of the musical, Soobin turned to glance at Beomgyu and the rest of his trio and a dozen or so scenarios began swimming through his mind. 

How Soobin would volunteer to stay late to set up the backdrop the day before opening night and run into Beomgyu, who’d also decided to stay late to run lines out of excited energy for the performance. How they’d then end up having a heart-to-heart on the stage floor while splitting a slightly soggy PB&J that had been leftover from Beomgyu’s lunch, revealing unspoken anxieties to each other that they’d never been brave enough to share with anyone else before. And how, when opening night finally came, Beomgyu would search through rows of seats until his gaze fell on Soobin, maintaining eye-contact with each other as Beomgyu gave his ending monologue. 

Soobin was snapped out of his reverie as Ryujin continued, “—but Mr. Park said he’d get us pizza every meet!”

Kai deflated at her words and muttered, “We’re out,” at the same time as Soobin slapped the cafeteria table excitedly and turned back toward Ryujin to proclaim, “We’re in!”

“Who’s the sell out now,” Kai muttered, a look of open disgust on his face. Turning back to Ryujin, he casted her a skeptical look, “How is this even AV stuff? Wouldn’t that just make us, like, stage crew?”

Ryujin shrugged, “Well, technically, yeah.”

“And why would we want to do that?”

“C’mon Kai! Please! Mr. Park said I had two more days to fill up the crew or else he’d open up sign-ups to the rest of the school,” Ryujin visibly shuttered at her own words, “I can’t work with incompetent rejected theater nerds! I won’t!”

As his imagined scenarios continued to spiral through his mind—getting dangerously close to determining the way he’d propose (would a beach date be too tacky?)—Soobin leaned forward excitedly and backed Ryujin. “Yeah c’mon Kai! It’ll be fun!”

Kai glared at him, immediately seeing through his delusions. Soobin shared a look with Ryujin and they both crowded into Kai’s space, hands clasped and eyes wide. Kai glanced at Soobin’s jutted bottom lip and Ryujin’s large puppy-dog eyes and pushed them both back roughly. The bell signifying that lunch period was over rang just as Kai let out an exasperated sigh.

“Fine, fine! Anything to get you two to stop making those ugly faces.”

Ryujin stood up quickly, clapping excitedly, “Great! We meet every Thursday and Friday in the auditorium for the first couple weeks and then we start meeting Saturdays but I’ll text you guys the details later. The first meeting is this Thursday! See you guys there!” and then she was running off, as if afraid that if she stayed too long they’d change their minds.

**Author's Note:**

> the end of a first chapter! still not sure about how long this will be but i'll likely be updating slowly because of school. 
> 
> let me know your thoughts ♥!
> 
> [ curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/stellatoo)


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